Latest Posts

Neil Young and Promise of the Real – The Monsanto Years

July 1, 2015 Tim Fenster

Sure, in writing it sounded like a good idea, or at the very least a ballsy and righteous one. Neil Young, one of rock’s most dedicated social and environmental activists, dedicating the space of an entire LP to taking down one of the most controversial corporations in modern America, Monsanto Company, your trusted neighborhood manufacturer of carcinogenic PCBs, genetically-modified farming seeds and various herbicides. But political art – be in poetry, literature or music – is a delicate balancing act, and usually necessitates a less-or-more approach. This is the central problem for Neil Young and Co. on The Monsanto Years: he drives home the same points so heavy-handed and incessantly that his message grows dull and befuddled long before the record’s end. Attempts to clarify his argument – on “A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee” he addresses legislative efforts to have GMO foods labeled, and the company’s responding lawsuits –[...]

Tonight: Steve Miller Band

June 30, 2015 Tim Fenster

“Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah / some call me the gangster of love.” Chances are, even if you’ve never heard of the Steve Miller Band, you are at least familiar with the above lines, which are the iconic opening to the San Fran outfit’s most familiar song, “The Joker.” But the Steve Miller Band had an impressive and successful run of hits, mostly in the 1970s, including “Fly Like an Eagle” and “Jungle Love.” Clearly, the band has not been relegated to dinosaur or one-hit wonder status: the group’s set at Artpark tonight sold out days in advance. Opening the show, fittingly enough, is the local R&B/soul group Miller and Other Sinners. The show begins at 6:30pm, with doors opening at 4:45pm. Artwork is located in Lewiston, just off Route 104.

Tonight: Benjamin Booker

June 16, 2015 Tim Fenster

Benjamin Booker is certainly far from the first to mix the power and passion of blues with the vigorous energy and attitude of rock ’n’roll. But few in modern music seem as committed to the rawness and simplicity of their respective influences – which, in this Virginia Beach singer-songwriter’s case, is mostly DIY punk and bluesy garage-rock revival, with a dash of gritty, Joe Cocker-esque soul. And what better place to catch Booker’s intense, lo-fi rock approach than at Buffalo’s Tralf Music Hall tonight? From here he’ll be heading home, south to Virginia and then to Dover, Del. for the Firefly Music Festival. There he’ll be right at home with the likes of Hozier and Gary Clark, Jr., and hopefully find new fans amongst the 80,000 in attendance. For the blues-buff who finds someone like the aforementioned Hozier or the the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach too slick, too pop-oriented, Benjamin[...]

Of Monsters and Men – Beneath the Skin

June 8, 2015 Tim Fenster

Nearly four years after their hugely successful debut, My Head Is an Animal, the Icelandic indie-folk/indie-pop quintet Of Monsters and Men has at last returned with a proper follow-up in Beneath the Skin. The record is a rare, near-perfect follow-up that both retains the group’s galloping choruses and effervescent energy while also pushing their sound in new directions. On Animal, the quintet’s melodies were so jaunty and jangely that even tragic songs like “Little Talks” – which seems to discuss communications between two lovers, one living, one dead – came across as bubbly and lighthearted. With Skin, some of alt-rock’s best hook-writers have gotten better at channeling that tragedy and beauty into their music. They still employ their big horn hooks and chants, but they’re done more subtly and artfully. The addition of pummeling tribal drums have also lent the music an oomph and expansiveness that fits excellently in the[...]

Florence + the Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

June 2, 2015 Tim Fenster

As humans we would never wish personal turmoil, i.e. a tough breakup, on anybody, most of us having gone through a lot of that shit ourselves. As music-fans, however, there’s nothing better than a breakup, divorce, death of a loved one or mental breakdown, as tragedy has inspired so many artists’ best music. For baroque-y British soulstress Florence Welch, the personal turmoil included a “complicated, on-again-off-again relationship” with both a man and the bottle, culminating in a near mental breakdown during her time off following her astonishing sprint to the top with 2009’s Lungs and 2011’s Ceremonials. It’s also, thankfully for us, culminated in How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – the most intimate, powerful album yet from this vocal powerhouse. She matches soul-barring, confrontational lyrics (see “You were on the other side, like always / You could never make you mine” from lead single “What Kind of Man”) with[...]

Faith No More – Sol Invictus

May 19, 2015 Tim Fenster

Even while experi-metal rockers Faith No More helped inform so much heavy music of the 90s and early Aughts, they always seemed to be miles removed from it. In the early 90s they were too abrasive for the alt-rock crowd, too weird and unpredictable for grunge, and by the late 90s too arty for the likes of KoRn and System of a Down, the nu-metal freaks they’d helped inspire. But the group still maintained a sizable cult following that’s proven impervious to critical panning and total lack of chart hits – sans “Epic” and “Midlife Crisis” – and one that only seems to have grown since their temporary disbanding in ’99. It seems only now the band’s getting the dues they deserve, and they couldn’t have proven themselves with a finer, so-called “comeback” disc than Sol Invictus. Rather than try and build on their enormously varied body of work, the[...]

Snoop Dogg – BUSH

May 12, 2015 Tim Fenster

Snoop Dogg sure is having one hell of a late-career rediscovery. After more than two decades in his revered gangsta rap persona, the D-O-Double-G reinvented himself as a peace-loving, rastacap-wearing reggae crooner for 2013’s Reincarnated. After that he had a brief stint as SnoopZilla, for his one-off 7 Days of Funk album with Dam-Funk, and a longer stint as DJ Snoopadelic, a phase which pretty much explains itself. For his latest project, BUSH, the unlikely hip-hop chameleon teamed up with Pharrell Williams for an upbeat set inspired by old-school funk, disco, and modern EDM music. Think Kanye’s 808s filtered through the jazzy funk amalgam of To Pimp A Butterfly’s production. What you end up with is the funnest, most-focused set of Tha Dogg’s career. The record opens with “California Roll” – a piece of sunny, Golden State-loving funk set over the bass-line and rhythms of “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” It’s[...]

Mumford & Sons – Wilder Nights

May 5, 2015 Tim Fenster

Though the de facto leaders of the folk revival movement, Mumford & Sons have always been arena rock as much as anything. On songs like 2009’s “Little Lion Man” and “I Will Wait” off their GRAMMY-winning sophomore effort Babel, frontman Marcus Mumford brought a dramatic edge – and of course, huge singalong choruses – that practically demanded a huge starry-eyed audience. For their third effort, Wilder Mind, they embrace their inner pop – and populist – impulses, and, of course, plug in. And while they do deserve a kudos for a radical departure from a very successful formula,the results are anything but bold. With help from The National guitarist Aaron Dessner, the group employs a slow building and moody approach that replicates a watered down approach of that group’s style. They also add Coldplay-esque sentimentality, loads of boring chords that’d find home in a Snow Patrol songs and splashes of[...]

Raekwon – Fly International Luxury Art

April 29, 2015 Tim Fenster

The Wu-Tang Clan as a collective has unquestionably seen better days, but the group’s most talented member (if not Ghostface Killah) has enjoyed something of a Raekwonaissance as of lately. Buoyed by the 2009 release of the excellent, long-delayed sequel Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. II, Raekwon has been unusually high-profile in recent years, turning in guest verses for the likes of Kanye West and SchoolBoy-Q. Naturally, the Chef tried to build on his success and create music that would appeal to a broader audience than his usual Mafioso rap narratives. At least that was his stated goal in 2013, when he announced Fly International Luxury Art, his sixth studio album. But after two years of push-backs and delays, it’s hard not to feel underwhelmed with much of the final result. Production-wise, the album is yet another return to Raekwon’s roots – specially the first Cuban Linx – with[...]

Tonight: Afrika Bambaataa

April 25, 2015 Tim Fenster

Legendary DJ Afrika Bambaataa is making his debut performance in the Queen City tonight at Duke’s Bohemian Grove Bar. While the South Bronx DJ has scarcely a popular hit to his name, his fusions of hip-hop, funk and electro house made him one of the most ground-breaking DJs of the early 80s. Bambaataa (real name: Kevin Donovan) is widely as an originator of breakbeat DJing and electro-funk, and is widely referred to as the “Godfather of Hip-Hop” (not to be confused with the Doggfather – Snoop). His classic tracks include such old-school hip-hop staples as “Jazzy Sensation,” “Planet Rock” and of course, “Renegades of Funk” (which 90s babies may remember for its excellent funk-metal cover by Rage Against the Machine in 2000). But Bambaataa’s influence has largely overshadowed his relatively obscure hip-hop funk classics. Among his legacy is the Universal Zulu Nation – a hip-hop awareness group that helped spread[...]

Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color

April 21, 2015 Tim Fenster

When they exploded on the scene in 2012, Alabama Shakes’ mix of bluesy garage rock, Southern rock and soul (channeled via vocalist Brittany Howard) led most critics to brand them a roots rock group. It was, for the most part, a fitting umbrella genre to peg the eclectic, idiosyncratic quartet under. But with the release of their sophomore record, Sound & Color, forget any notion you might have had about the Shakes playing so-called roots rock. In fact, forget any notion that these Heart of Dixie oddballs could be branded under any singular genre or style. A breathtakingly weird and diverse record, Sound & Color adds R&B, disco, funk, classic rock and even dashes of punk to its established soul and blues rock amalgam. And while genre-blending may be more or less ubiquitous in popular music in our post-millennium world, most acts are far more subtle, seamless and safe in[...]

Still Diggin’: Spiral Scratch Records

April 17, 2015 Tim Fenster

Spiral Scratch Records is the kind of place that’s becoming increasingly hard to find in these times of big-box department stores and strip malls – a shop with character. The Bryant Street record shop is Buffalo’s only independent record store, and definitely one of the quaintest record joints around. Its entire retail space could fit probably fit into your living room, or a single studio apartment, so the place feels crowded with just a half a dozen patrons. But that’s also its charm – the personal, individualized feel of the place, and the chance to interact with hip people who probably share your tastes in music. While the store boasts a good collection of new and used vinyl records – along with various clothes, CDs, books, magazines, stickers and the like – they specialize mainly in punk, indie-rock, and various underground and cult acts. On a typical day you can[...]

Tyler, The Creator – Cherry Bomb

April 13, 2015 Tim Fenster

Say what you will about Tyler, The Creator – his puerile public persona; his real-life destructive stage antics; his stoic, perennially grumpy-sounding delivery – but the dude’s nothing if not eclectic. Much like the sophomore records of fellow Odd Future emcee Earl Sweatshirt, and unlikely OF friend and collab Mac Miller, Tyler unleashes a dizzying, psychedelic smash of sounds on his second album, Cherry Bomb, that’s quite incomparable in rap. It’s no secret the OF Head Honcho has been trying to incorporate jazz influences in his music, and free jazz, neo-soul and funk swirl and percolate on the album’s softer, finer moments. “2 Seater” is a woozy R&B slow burner that could almost bit the bill for a Frank Ocean track, and lead single “Fucking Young” is a lovably campy lovesong backed by a psychedelic soundscape of shimmering strings and ringing synths. But Tyler’s still Tyler, and he counter-balances these prettier[...]

Tonight: Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad

April 11, 2015 Tim Fenster

To the uninformed, Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad is Rochester’s premier dub reggae crew. That may sound like a particularly narrow and unessential niche to reign over, but the decade-old quintet is, in fact, one of the most popular and skillful live acts to emerge from The Flower City in recent years. With their mix of chill Caribbean rhythms, spaced-out soundscapes, and heavy low-end sounds, it’s easy to see why the band is so well loved by everyone from dub fanatics (as in the sub-genre of reggae, which is a world apart from the EDM atrocity that is dubstep) to college-aged stoners and reggae aficionados. Though Giant Panda has only put out a handful of studio LPs since their 2004 formation, the group has nursed a sizable and much-deserved cult following due mainly to the strength of their live shows. You can hear tons of their performances for free, and[...]

Tonight: Big Data

April 7, 2015 Tim Fenster

The past decade has certainly seen no shortage of underground artists melding electro-rock, psychedelic rock, alt-dance and synthpop – from MGMT to Ratatat to alt-J and beyond. But Big Data – a relatively new project helmed by Brooklyn DJ Alan Wilkis – displays enough intensity and virtuosity to stand apart, if not above, many of its peers in such a crowded field. Big Data’s music is at turns heady and danceable, abrasive and poppy, upbeat and frighteningly paranoid. His debut, 2.0, released this March, features vocal appearances ranging from Rivers Cuomo to Rochester indie-rockers Joywave to indie-pop artists the world around, from Kimbra to Twin Shadow. But their lyrics are pretty universally manic – Cuomo croons about Edward Snowden on the blaring noise-pop of “Snowed In;” White Sea sings about a relentless lover over Europop synths on “The Business of Emotion;” and on the bass-heavy debut single, “Dangerous” (which peaked[...]